Comey was fired not 24 hours after a devastating Senate hearing that produced more evidence that Trump has mishandled America’s national security with regards to Russia, by refusing to act when acting- Attorney General Sally Yates informed the White House that then- National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was compromised by lying about secret conversations he held with Russian spies.

Incredibly, Trump is claiming that he fired Comey for Hillary. In particular, how badly he handled the investigation of Hillary’s emails during the 2016 election, by going public when he shouldn’t.

The only problem is that Trump has never said that he disagreed with Comey’s handling of Hillary’s email investigation, quite the contrary. Trump’s only complaint has been that the Justice Department didn’t indict Hillary.

We’re to believe that Donald Trump was fine with Comey during the campaign, fine with Comey in January when Trump was sworn in, and fine with Comey all these months. But now, months into Trump’s presidency, suddenly Trump has a problem with how Comey handled Hillary’s investigation last July?

That is clearly not why James Comey was fired. Comey was fired because yesterday’s Senate hearing was the last straw for Trump. Sally Yates made clear that the FBI investigation of Donald Trump was yielding fruit that even the CIA wasn’t aware of.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Trump’s pretext for firing Comey “preposterous,” and compared Trump’s actions directly with Nixon’s. Toobin’s comments were chilling. He says Comey was fired because the Russia investigation was getting too close to Trump:

Donald Trump fired James Comey so that he can now replace him with a stooge who will do his bidding and shut down the Russia investigation entirely. There is no reason to have any confidence that the FBI will now be anything more than a corrupt extension of Trump’s corrupt kleptocracy.

Donald Trump has finally crossed one line too far. Trump needs to be removed from office.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.